The personal delivery of items such as parcels has long been known in the art. As an example, United Parcel Service (a.k.a. “UPS”) the assignee of the present application, ships nearly 13 million packages and documents each day through a network, which has been carefully engineered to provide speed, reliability, and efficiency. The first step in the process is pickup. UPS delivery drivers are assigned a specific route, making regularly scheduled stops along the route. Typically, the driver delivers packages in the morning, and picks up packages in the afternoon. Large-volume customers, who might ship thousands of packages a day, may have a UPS tractor-trailer stationed on site. Lower-volume customers, who might ship as few as 2–5 packages a week, are served by the familiar UPS delivery truck. Customers with urgent shipments of Next Day Air letters or packages can call UPS for On-Call Air Pick Up. Using state-of-the-art communications technology, On-Call Air dispatchers locate the nearest package car and electronically dispatch it to the customer location for “just in time” pickup. Occasional customers can drop off their packages at conveniently located UPS letter centers and service counters.
To transport packages most efficiently, UPS has developed an elaborate network of “hubs” or central sorting facilities located throughout the world. Each hub is “fed” by a number of local operating centers, which serve as home base for UPS pickup and delivery vehicles. Packages from the local operating center are transported to the hub, usually by tractor-trailer and are unloaded. The packages are sorted by ZIP code and consolidated on conveyor belts. Packages bound for a specific geographical region are all consolidated on the same conveyor belt. Then packages are routed to either an out-bound trailer for local delivery, or to a delivery truck serving the immediate area. Before being loaded, each package is checked one last time, just to make sure it has been sorted correctly.
To transport packages between hubs, UPS uses tractor-trailers, called feeders, to transport thousands of packages from the hub where the package originated, to the hub nearest the package's destination. This is known as the ground feeder network.
Each UPS driver delivers up to 500 packages a day, including express packages which must be delivered by 10:30 a.m. This process requires careful planning and teamwork. At the hub, packages are loaded onto delivery trucks in the same order in which they will be delivered. This process is called the “preload.” By delivering packages in sequence, from one address to the next closest address, drivers complete their assigned routes as quickly and productively as possible. In 1991, UPS became the first package delivery company to gather signatures electronically and have Saturday Delivery. Using a hand-held computer device called a DIAD (Delivery Information Acquisition Device), the driver electronically captures information about each package, including the time of delivery and even the signature of the person receiving the package.
As may be understood, the delivery of such items requires a significant investment in logistics, not only to perform the delivery service but to provide the customer with information regarding the items while they are in transit, a.k.a. “online tracking”. In 1994, UPS's Web site made its debut and for the first time in UPS history, on Dec. 22, 1998, online tracking requests for www.ups.com exceeded one million. At the time of filing of this application, UPS was delivering approximately 12.9 million packages and documents a day for 1.8 million regular customers and averages more than two million on-line tracking requests per day on its Web site.
Although such tracking features indeed have advantages, the need for improvements always exists.